Category: Election

Well, that was quite the night. Just three weeks after Medway went to the polls for local elections, we did so again for European elections. Following the stability in those elections, the people of Medway went for something very different in these elections:

Across the area and the UK, voters have the chance to elect the MEPs that may or may not represent us in the European Parliament for the next five years.

Medway is part of the South East region, which will select 10 MEPs on a proportional basis.

Polling stations are now open and remain open until 10pm.

If you have received your polling card, you will know where you need to go to vote. If you are registered to vote but have not received your card, you do not need it to vote. Just go to your polling station, confirm your name and address, and you will be allowed to vote. No ID is required.

If you have a postal vote, but did not remember to return it in time, you can drop it in to your polling station up until polls close at 10pm.

Ahead of the European elections, we asked representatives from the major parties to submit an article making the case for their party. Today, former Medway UKIP group leader Roy Freshwater puts forward the argument for his party..

Mrs. May’s Withdrawal Agreement (treaty) is a complete betrayal of the referendum decision. 88,997 Medway residents voted on the 23rd June 2016 to leave the EU and take back control of our money, our laws and our borders. The government made up of ‘remainers’ and mostly elitist MPs after three years has presented us with a ‘Not Really Leaving the EU Withdrawal Agreement’. It will not satisfy leavers or remainers, and cost many millions in payments to the EU that should be spent on improving the lives of British communities and Medway communities. Its intention is to make it possible to reverse the referendum decision or, if it is implemented, to pave the way for re-entry to the EU in a few years’ time.

Once a month we hand over to Alan Collins from Medway Elects who digs into the Medway electoral data to try to tell us what it all means. This month we sent him the fun task of looking at data from previous European elections..

Just when you thought it was safe to open the mail without fearing a party political begging letter from the [insert name here] party, fresh off the close of #MedwayElects19, you are now likely to instead be bombarded with campaign literature for the elections no one gives a fig about – and if the politicians in Westminster had pulled their fingers out (or something) wouldn’t be taking place.

So in the spirit of getting everyone excited for #MedwayElects19version2 (other hashtags are available), Jennings and Keevil have pulled me out of data analysis retirement to look at the ghost of European elections past.

Between councillors losing their seats, retirements, and deselections, a little under a third of councillors who were in office last week ago no longer are. I thought it’d be nice to take a look at those who will no longer be gracing the council chamber. Consider this like the ‘in memoriam’ section at the Oscars, just without the glitz, glamour, and likeable personalities. Continue reading “So, farewell then.. 2019 edition”

Across the authority, voters have the chance to elect the 55 councillors that will represent us for the next four years.

Polling stations are now open and remain open until 10pm.

If you have received your polling card, you will know where you need to go to vote. If you are registered to vote but have not received your card, you do not need it to vote. Just go to your polling station, confirm your name and address, and you will be allowed to vote. No ID is required.

If you have a postal vote, but did not remember to return it in time, you can drop it in to your polling station up until polls close at 10pm.

You may have heard that we’ve got a local election tomorrow in Medway. As such, today we’re going to publish our predictions for how we think things will shake out across each ward and in Medway as a whole.

One caveat: We did this in 2015 and we were wrong on a lot of fronts. But maybe we’ve learnt something four years on? We’ll find out on Friday.

We’d love to hear your own predictions. Drop yours into the comments at the bottom of this post, on our Facebook page, or tweet us using the hashtag #MedwayPredicts19.

Back in 2015 I wrote an article shortly before the local elections of that year on how well the parties were doing on a quest for gender equality. The results were, to put it mildly, not happy reading. Women were a minority on the candidate lists from most parties, and made up little more than a quarter of councillors in the chamber. So four years on, are we doing any better?

To begin, here is an infographic showing the current composition of the council by gender: